Post by AksWarrior on May 21, 2017 13:23:08 GMT
This article was first published on may 21st 2015
and transferred to this post to prevent loss should "the 405"
ever decide to delete older articles.
A link to the original webpage can be found below.
and transferred to this post to prevent loss should "the 405"
ever decide to delete older articles.
A link to the original webpage can be found below.
AURORA interviewed: "I started to write songs in the first place to help myself get through things."
Initially appearing under her full name of Aurora Aksnes when releasing her debut single 'Awakening' back in 2012 just as she turned seventeen, it always seemed like the native of Os, near Bergen on the west coast of Norway, was destined for great things.
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Andrew Hannah
21 May, 2015
"I walk alone, I'm everything / My ears can hear and my mouth can speak /
My spirit talks, I know my soul believes."
These words appear halfway through the fifth single from the brilliant teenage
Norwegian AURORA, 'Running with the Wolves', signalling both a song about
instinct and nature but also a clarion call for someone who is ready to take the
music world by storm.
Initially appearing under her full name of Aurora Aksnes when releasing her
debut single 'Awakening' back in 2012 just as she turned seventeen, it always
seemed like the native of Os, near Bergen on the west coast of Norway,
was destined for great things. Her sound appeared almost immediately fully-formed:
strong beats, pop synths, layered and explosive vocals with just a hint of folk,
fantastical lyrics and melodies to die for. The four tracks which make up the
Running with the Wolves EP are all this and more, and serve as a wonderful taster
for the AURORA debut album coming later in the year.
In a busy (and bloody noisy) London airport, just about to board a flight back to
Bergen, the young Norwegian tells me how it feels to be the recipient of all this
exposure - especially for someone who hid their music from her family for a long
period of time - and had to rely on a sneaky friend to upload songs to the internet
behind her back: "Well, it feels....very weird!" says AURORA. "And I think that's
the key word in my life right now...it's strange but at least now I'm starting to enjoy
being amongst and in front of people - I hated it before! It is very strange but I'm
happy to be able to do what I do..."
Surely as the critical and commercial acclaim piles up at the teenager's door she'll
be gaining more confidence? "Well, no! Not at the moment," she replies and
explains why the confidence isn't quite flowing yet? "It kind of gets more and more
scary because I think people, they start to expect more... if people start to know
who I am and if they've heard more, then other people start to come and enjoy
my live show - I dunno, it gets scarier! And I'm still nervous, which is very annoying!"
It's not helped that AURORA now stands stage from without the protection of a piano
or keyboard: "I miss the piano now, when I'm standing," admits the singer. "But it is
good to have my hands free and be able to move them around in my story telling!
I miss having something to hide behind, though... it was very awkward performing
the first time without playing [the piano] myself. It was strange standing there, alone."
On first listen and look, there appears to be a little bit of a "running" theme to AURORA's
Running with the Wolves EP what with the title track and 'Runaway' sharing a common
word. I'm interested to know that if the dreamlike nature of a lot of AURORA's music
suggests a desire to escape the complications and obligations of the modern world -
but as AURORA reveals, it's not quite as simple as that: "No, it's not all about escapism.
I guess all my songs are different stories, different songs," she says. "They don't always
have anything to do with each other, they're just stories that I need to tell people."
But she does go on to say that the two "running" tracks do share a similar emotion:
"Of course, 'Running with the Wolves' and 'Runaway' are kind of about an escape, but in
different ways. On 'Runaway' it's about realising you want to get home again, and on
'Running with the Wolves' it's about wanting to get away, get back to nature - feel your
instincts come alive again." As for the rest of the EP, made up of 'In Boxes' and
'Little Boy in the Grass' AURORA explains that "the two other songs are quite weird
stories as well! One is quite morbid and the other one is quite sad! It's a weird EP,
I guess, made up of a few stories."
Stories started at an early age for Aurora Aksnes; never pressured into music in a
household where song certainly had a presence, the young Aurora discovered a toy
piano hidden away in her family home. She never took lessons, preferring to learn
by ear and being her own teacher, and eventually the songs and stories gathering
within her found a way out: "I started to write songs in the first place to help myself
get through things," says AURORA. "I needed to write them, you know?" Although
dreamlike and fantastical, without vivid imagery such as wolves and blood making
an appearance along with some of the aforementioned weird stories, AURORA has
always taken inspiration from the 'real world': "Some of the songs are from my
own life experiences," she begins, "and some of them are from the experiences of
people around me. It doesn't really matter if it's my feeling or some other person's
feelings - thinking about it can still make me quite sad, even when it's [the feeling]
by another person. Most of them are from real life but I do make up some stories
and weird characters. The EP has a track 'In Boxes', that's a really weird story
about a really strange lady! [laughs]" And although English was her second
language, the music that moved AURORA was very much in that language, and
very much classic in nature. Her favourite song was 'Suzanne' by Leonard Cohen,
and Bob Dylan was also a big influence - so are these legends still inspire today?
"Yeah they do!" exclaims AURORA. "And they always do; I guess I started to write
because of them, and I wanted to write in the same way about all these important
things in life! They inspire me a lot, still."
With the release of her new EP, AURORA might have to start getting used to being
a young Norwegian spending a lot of her time a long way from home, so I ask if she's
prepared for leaving the beautiful west coast, Bergen and Norway well behind for a time?
"Well I am very attached to my home," she says. "I live in a very beautiful place and
I need trees, and nature and the ocean - stuff like that - around me. It makes me happier
more than anything else to be around it, to be in nature. And I realise now, walking through
the airport in London, that I really miss that! I can't wait to go home again. I like to travel,
though. It is a wonderful thing to move around, but it's nice to go home to the silence."
But it was of course Norway which gave her this chance to travel the world and share
her music beyond the borders of her home country. Government, arts councils and other
cultural bodies continue to be the envy of countries such as the UK in the way they
support the arts, whereas the current coalition government in Britain has been
shamefully cutting funding for the past five years; Aurora is well aware of the help
and support provided, and feels it has made a vital impact: "Yeah, absolutely!" she agrees.
"I feel that a lot. I think it's really great and it's amazing how they support us and make
it even more possible for us to do what we want to do."
As I hear a tannoy announcement which signals it's time for AURORA to head home to
Norway, she has a final couple of minutes to tell us what we can expect from
September's debut album: "More different stories will come!" she assures me.
"But they're less dreamy, some of them. It's not just a sad and dark record, there is
some hope in it... which is nice!" So we're going to find a more contented AURORA?
"I am writing more happy songs now... but the album will be quite schizophrenic
when it comes to the emotions."
AURORA's debut EP, Running With The Wolves, is out now on Decca Records.
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Original Article
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Photo: Bent René Synnevåg